In many cases, the end of the year gives you time to step back and take stock of the last 12 months. This is when many of us take a hard look at what worked and what did not, complete performance reviews, and formulate plans for the coming year. For me, it is all of those things plus a time when I u...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to a recent meta-analysis further revealing a link between diabetes and hearing loss, the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) is urging people with diabetes to get their hearing tested and is encouraging others to find out if they're at risk for developing type 2 diabetes by taking the American Diabetes Association's Diabetes Risk Test. BHI's efforts come in recognition of American Diabetes Association Alert Day® on March 26. BHI is offering a free, quick, and confidential online hearing check at www.hearingcheck.org. Anyone can take the confidential online survey to determine if they need a comprehensive hearing test by a hearing healthcare professional.

Held on the fourth Tuesday of every March, Alert Day® is a one-day "wake-up call" asking the American public to take the Diabetes Risk Test to find out if they are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Although Alert Day is a one-day event, the Diabetes Risk Test and the BHI Hearing Check are available year-round.

The Diabetes-Hearing Health ConnectionHearing depends on small blood vessels and nerves in the inner ear. Studies have shown that people with diabetes have a higher rate of hearing loss than people without diabetes. Although the relationship between diabetes and hearing loss is still being investigated, researchers theorize that, over time, high blood glucose levels can damage the blood vessels and nerves in the inner ear, diminishing the ability to hear.

In a recent Japanese meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers found that people with diabetes were 2.15 times as likely as those without the disease to have hearing loss. Surprisingly, when broken down by age, the younger group was at greater risk. The results showed that those 60 and younger with diabetes were 2.61 times more likely to have hearing loss, while the risk for those older than 60 was 1.58 times higher. The meta-analysis looked at 13 previous studies—published between 1977 and 2011—that examined the link between diabetes and hearing loss.

According to Professor Hirohito Sone, Department of Internal Medicine, Niigata University School of Medicine, Niigata, Japan: "Our findings support routine hearing screenings for people with diabetes starting at an earlier age than for people without the disease. From a preventive healthcare perspective, this is very important because we know that when left untreated, hearing loss can exacerbate and perhaps even lead to other health problems, such as depression and dementia, making the diabetes burden even greater."

Likewise, research also suggests that by keeping diabetes under control, people can help minimize potential diabetes-related hearing damage. Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that women between the ages of 60 and 75 with well-controlled diabetes had better hearing than women whose diabetes was poorly controlled.

"A certain degree of hearing loss is common with aging, but it is often accelerated in patients with diabetes, especially if blood-glucose levels are not being controlled," said senior study author Kathleen L. Yaremchuk, M.D., Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

"Our study really points to the importance of patients controlling their diabetes and paying attention to their hearing health."

Unlike eye exams, hearing health examinations are often overlooked in the routine regimen of care for people with diabetes, despite the fact that the vast majority of people with hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids. In fact, almost all of the 400 people who underwent hearing tests at the American Diabetes Association's EXPO in Portland, Oregon last year said they had never received a physician's recommendation for a hearing test. Yet more than half of these 400 individuals were found to have hearing loss. And nearly all of them said they did not know that hearing loss is associated with diabetes.

More About Hearing Loss and Hearing AidsLife-loving Gen-Xers and baby boomers need to take age-related hearing loss seriously if they want to stay socially, cognitively and physically active.

Research not only shows that hearing loss is associated with diabetes and other chronic illnesses, but when left untreated, hearing loss adversely affects quality of life, earnings, and physical and emotional well-being.

Luckily, the overwhelming majority of people with hearing loss can benefit from hearing aids. Eight out of 10 hearing aid users say they are satisfied with the changes that have occurred in their lives specifically due to their hearing aids—from how they feel about themselves to the positive effects hearing aids have on their social and work lives.

In fact, studies show that when people with even mild hearing loss use hearing aids, they improve their job performance, increase their earning potential, enhance their communication skills, improve their professional and interpersonal relationships, and stave off depression.

Today's hearing aids combine high-performance technology and style with durability and ease-of-use, transcending the old-world notion that a condition as common as hearing loss is something to hide. The options are so varied, in fact, that there is an attractive solution for just about anyone. Designers offer styles that appeal to the fashion conscious, the trendsetter, the partygoer, the intellectual, the active sports enthusiast, the cautious grandmother, the romantic, the weekend warrior, and even the guy just tired of arguing with his wife and kids about the volume on the TV.

Whether they sit discreetly inside your ear canal, or wrap aesthetically around the contour of your outer ear like the latest fashion accessory, today's high-performance hearing aids amplify life. They unabashedly send the message: "I'm too young and full of life to stop doing the things I love best." In fact, today's hearing aids are the #1 Must-Have Consumer Electronic for enhancing life in 2013.

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